To the Editor: South Africa has a reputation for being a violent society, with non-natural causes of death estimated to account for up to 30% of all deaths. Among these, firearm injuries are a common cause of mortality.1,2 In addition, about 127 000 individuals are treated at South African state hospitals each year for non-fatal firearm injuries.3 A previous study examined the cost of treating ...

Research that is integral into a 'learning healthcare system' can promote cost effective services and knowledge creation. As such, research is defined as a 'core function' in UK health service organisations, and is often planned through research and development (R&D) strategies that aim to promote research activity and research capacity development (RCD). The discussion focuses around the conte...

BACKGROUND In order to measure and analyse the technical efficiency of district hospitals in Ghana, the specific objectives of this study were to (a) estimate the relative technical and scale efficiency of government, mission, private and quasi-government district hospitals in Ghana in 2005; (b) estimate the magnitudes of output increases and/or input reductions that would have been required to...

BACKGROUND Rational and cost-effective prescription of medicines requires up-to-date and readily accessible medicines information. There are several studies on availability and access to medicines information sources, but have been conducted only in high-income countries. OBJECTIVE To assess medicines information sources accessed by physicians in public hospitals in Uganda, and physicians' op...

BACKGROUND Health centres and hospitals play a crucial role in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity by offering respectively Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (BEmONC) and Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEmONC). The readiness of hospitals to provide CEmONC depends on the availability of qualified human resources, infrastructure like surgical theatres, and supp...

Neonatal units in teaching and non-teaching hospitals both in public and private hospitals have been increasing in number in the country since the sixties. In 1994, a District Newborn Care Programme was introduced as a part of the Child Survival and Safe Motherhood Programme (CSSM) in 26 districts. Inpatient care of small and sick newborns in the public health system got a boost under National ...

BACKGROUND Surgery is an essential component of health care, yet it has usually been overlooked in public health across the world. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to perform a situational analysis of essential surgical care management at district hospitals in Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS This research was a descriptive and cross-sectional study performed at 42 first-referral district hospitals o...

conclusions the results indicated that suitable facilities and equipment, human resources, and infrastructure were available in the district hospitals in iran. these findings showed that there is potential for the district hospitals to provide care in a wider spectrum. results in this study, 100% of the studied hospitals had oxygen cylinders, running water, electricity, anesthesia machines, eme...

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis remains a major public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa. District hospitals (DHs) play a central role in district-based health systems, and their relation with vertical programmes is very important. Studies on the impact of vertical programmes on DHs are rare. This study aims to fill this gap. Its purpose is to analyse the interaction between the National Tuberculosi...

BACKGROUND Aga Khan University is developing its undergraduate medical education curriculum for East Africa. In Kenya, a 1 year internship is mandatory for medical graduates' registration as practitioners. The majority of approved internship training sites are at district hospitals. The purposes of this study were to determine: (1) whether recent Kenyan medical graduates are prepared for their ...